THE midfielder struck the winning goal in Tuesday's Challenge Cup win over Championship rivals Hibs - and says Ally McCoist's side will use the

NICKY LAW last night admitted that facing a Championship challenge has got the juices flowing in the Rangers
dressing room for the first time in two years.

The Ibrox midfielder witnessed at first hand just how tough winning the second tier is going to be this term when Hibs outplayed Gers for much of Tuesday’s Petrofac Training Cup clash.

But the Englishman insisted that having strong competition is exactly what Ally McCoist’s men want.

Law scored the extra-time
winner that sent Hibs crashing out but the Rangers player was impressed by Alan Stubbs’ team and is convinced his own side will meet the challenges facing them this season head on.

He said: “The manager said at the end – if we needed telling – that it’s going to be lot tougher than it was last season. But it’s going to be an exciting league.

“Hibs played really well. They were impressive in the way they passed the ball around.

“They’ve got a new system with the 4-2-3-1.

“We went with a new formation, 3-5-2 which we’d worked on in a couple of behind closed doors games in pre-season.

“It’s worked quite well and in the first half against Hibs it wasn’t too bad.

“But their system dominated ours for a spell in the second half and we had to change it. If that’s the way we are going to go, it is going to take time to make it work.

“They imposed their system more on the game than we did, particularly in the second half when for 20-25 minutes we couldn’t really get near them.

“In the end it was a relief to get through. But there are things we’ll work on and we will get better.”

Asked if he was looking forward to having it tougher this term, the former Motherwell midfielder added: “Definitely. It’s proper football.

“I said from the first day back it’s a serious time now for all of us. Last year we could take the foot off the pedal a little bit because the league was over by Christmas and it was difficult at times to put the foot on the pedal 100 per cent in every game.

“This game was perfect for us, an eye opener for how difficult it will be and we managed to come through it. We need to improve and play a lot better than we did and I’m sure we will.

“But that’s our 10th game already. We’ve had a tough pre-season and we’ve covered something like 13,000 miles with the four games in America.

“We also had what turned into a nine-hour coach journey down to Derby on Friday then had a tough game there with 10 men for 25 minutes and got the runaround there.

“The last thing we wanted against Hibs was 120 minutes but we showed character to turn it round when they were dominating the game.

“The main thing for us was to get through to the second round and we managed to do that.

“We have a lot of tired boys in there but we’ll rest then go again on Sunday – it’s another fantastic game against Hearts, which will be as tough if not tougher.

“The place will be jumping again. It’s the ideal start, Hibs, Hearts then Falkirk. We want to show those other three teams we mean business and that we want to come out on top by the end of the season.”

Law believes that having Kris Boyd and Kenny Miller up front will help them do just that, particularly if Lewis Macleod, who scored the opener on Tuesday, is supplying them with ammunition.

He said: “Boydy had a few chances that he would normally put away against Hibs. But, in general, give Boydy a sniff and he will score.

“Kenny Miller is the same. I’ve no doubt the pair of them will be up at the top of the scoring charts by the end of the season.

“Having Lewis back is like having a new player. He’s stamped his authority on games and he’s scored as well.